Work by late Steven Campbell donated to Glasgow School of Art

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/aug/14/work-steven-campbell-donated-glasgow-school-of-art

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The award-winning film director Bill Forsyth and his partner, Moira Wylie, have donated an artwork by the late Steven Campbell to the Glasgow School of Art.

Campbell is regarded as the outstanding member of the group of GSA graduates known as the New Glasgow Boys – after their predecessors, the Glasgow Boys of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He died in 2007 of a ruptured appendix, aged 54.

Campbell and Forsyth were friends and fishing companions, and when the artist was asked to make a portrait of a famous Scot to add to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery he chose Forsyth, whose films include the 1981 low budget Gregory’s Girl, Comfort and Joy and Local Hero, explaining: “Bill is the only famous person I know, and a pal.”

The art that Forsyth and Wylie have given, Fake Ophelia – part of Campbell’s 1993 Pinocchio’s Present exhibition in Edinburgh – is already hanging in the art school library.

Alison Stevenson, head of learning resources at the GSA, said: “Steven was an incredibly talented artist whose life was cut tragically short. We are delighted to be able to add Fake Ophelia to our rich collection of works by GSA graduates.”

Fake Ophelia was made at a particularly difficult time in Campbell’s life, when his brother had died and he was being sued by his former New York dealers. He said working on the collage of string, cut paper and textiles until his fingers bled was therapeutic.